All posts tagged ‘nymwars’

It was a few months ago that Google started cracking down and enforcing their real names policy on their new social media network, Google +. There was a lot of fear going around as stories of people losing access to all their Google accounts because of using a pseudonym on Google +.

The talk of the controversy has died down, but I’m sure this is still on the back of many people’s minds as Google + is now open to the public and gaining users as time goes on. But apparently Google did listen to the outcry and announced that they are going to work on supporting other forms of identity. At this point though, they haven’t explained how they are going to deal with pseudonyms.

This may mean the end of the Google + Nymwars, but it is too early to see. I know that I’ll be watching this story closely since I’d rather use a pseudonym on Google + than my real name. You can read more about this story here.

If you are using the Google+ social network, then you probably have heard the stories of people having their Google+ accounts, along with all their other Google accounts, locked. This has caused quite a stir throughout the internet as well as causing a lot of fear and speculation.

I’m one of those people who is afraid. I have a secret you see. Mandy isn’t really my name. Legally it is Amanda. But I’m not very fond of that name and I hardly use it at all. I did think about changing it legally to Mandy when I changed my name after I was married, but opted not to. And obviously the Chaos part of my name is also not a legal name.

When I first joined Google+, I had my Chaos in front of my real name. There are a lot of people who just know me as Chaos Mandy, and I figured that it would be an easy way to let people know it is me. After the news came out of people having name issues, I quickly changed it. I’m not so concerned about getting blocked out of Google+, but I am concerned that it would translate to my Gmail account which is my main email.

There is a lot of concern due to pen names, using maiden names and even using common nicknames like my Mandy. Google did put out a statement that they would going to warn people and then give them four days to fix their name in Google+. Despite this, there are still reports of people getting banned from their Google services without a grace period.

For me, it’s really disappointing because Google+ is really a great social networking site. But I think all of this name drama is going to make people be wary about even trying it.